Pannon Philharmonic

About the Programme

Japanese Fishermen – opera finale, recorded
Featuring: members of the National Theatre of Pécs, conductor: Ferenc Nagy
Attila Kovács’s interview with Róbert Károly
The Cathedral – oratorio extract, recorded
Featuring: Antal Pataki - tenor, Choirs of Pécs, Pécs Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Zsolt Hamar
"My Shadow and I" – chamber music to Dezső Kosztolányi’s Japanese poem translations: ”Japanese Songs”
Featuring: Ingrid Kertesi – soprano, Judit Tímár – flute, Ildikó Janzsó – cello, Ida Lakatos – harp, Ferenc Szabó – percussiions, conductor: Balázs Kocsár
Róbert Károly– Eugéne Guillevic: Song
Featuring: Dénes Gulyás – tenor, Enikő Lőte – piano 
Róbert Károly – Károly Arató: The New World
Featuring: Dénes Gulyás – tenor, Enikő Lőte – piano 
The Bell Rings of Aevum (Eternity)
       (Three mass movements: Sanctus – Benedictus - Agnus Dei)
Featuring: Sándor Balatoni – organ, Mozart Choir of the Pécs Cathedral,
Conductor: Szabolcs Szamosi
Two Pantomimes – suit: Dances of Loneliness, Variations of Vulnerability
(After Miklós Mészöly: Little Man, oh! For the Bóbita Puppet Theatre)
Featuring: Pécs Symphonietta, conductor: Balázs Kocsár
Róbert Károly: Passioni e rifflessioni – symphony
(For the 175-year-anniversary of the symphonic music playing in Pécs)
Featuring: Pécs Symphonietta, conductor: Balázs Kocsár
Róbert Károly: Hungarian Fanfare
Featuring: Pécs Railroad Concert Brass Band, conductor: Károly Neumayer

The concert offers a diverse selection of the oeuvre of a composer, who has been awarded a "Pro Communitate " - Prize of the city of Pécs, featuring excellent Pécs artists, with the personal presence of the composer. Róbert Károly, the composer born in Szeged, but from his age of 5 living  more than half a century in Pécs, has written countless works  related to major celebrations and  events of Pécs. In 1955, as a student of Louis the Great (Nagy Lajos) High School, at the age of just 18 (!), he won the national competition with his symphonic poem, titled Louis the Great. He is the only composer of Pécs whose opera – Japanese Fishermen - was given as a world premiere by the National Theatre of Pécs, in 1970. In 1986, his symphony written for the 175-year-anniversary of the Pécs Symphony Orchestra was presented under the baton of Tamás Breitner at the former Liszt Hall; and his cantata composed for the 300-year-anniversary of the founding of the Louis the Great High School, at the City Sports Arena, in 1987. His oratorio written for the occasion of the visit of Pope John Paul II in Pécs, titled The Cathedral - composed to the poems of a Pécs priest poet, László Kocsis – was performed at the Cathedral of Pécs exactly 20 years ago, with great collaboration of Pécs and Baranya County; and that work, when it was presented  again, lent the title to the 11th International Music Festival of Pécs. Róbert Károly’s numerous works written for special occasion generated national and international coverage. This concert, as part of the Music Harvest (Zeneszüret), a representative selection works has been written to date, is collaboration of excellent, internationally-known artists and musical ensembles of Pécs. The concert takes place as a co-production of the Philharmony (Filharmonia) of South Transdanubia Nonprofit Inc. and the Pannon Philharmonic.